IMPORTANT POINT
Ingredients of section 304B and 201 IPC restated.

JUDGMENT

V.S. Sirpurkar, J. —

1.The present appeal is directed against the judgment of the High Court dismissing the appeal of the appellant Dasrath. He was convicted by the Trial Court of the offence under Section 304B, Indian Penal Code (IPC) and was sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- and in default directed to suffer further imprisonment for one year. He was also convicted for the offence under Section 201, IPC and was directed to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year with a fine of Rs.1,000/- and in default to suffer three month’s further imprisonment.

2.Initially, as many as three accused persons came to be tried by the Sessions Judge, they being accused No.1, Kalyan, accused No.2, Dasrath and accused No.3, Smt. Usha. While accused No.2, Dasrath is the present appellant, accused No.1, Kalyan Singh and accused No.3, Smt. Usha are his father and sister, respectively. The Trial Court had also convicted Kalyan Singh for the same offence. However, it acquitted accused No.3, Smt. Usha from all the charges. Both the accused had filed an appeal challenging their conviction and the sentences before the High Court. However, during the pendency of the appeal, accused No.1 Kalyan Singh expired and his appeal, thus, abated. The appeal of Dasrath, the present appellant came to be dismissed by the High Court and that is how he is before us.

3.Shortly stated, the prosecution story was that Dasrath was married to Pinki who died under suspicious circumstance of burning. An intimation regarding death came to be given to the Police Station Pandhokhar, Distt. Gwalior. The said intimation was given by the complainant Vadehi Saran s/o Ramanand Kaurav who was none else but the father of the deceased Pinki. It was, inter alia, stated that on that day i.e. 12.8.1992 in the morning his son Jitendra Singh had gone to village Saujna for Rakhi festival to his daughter Pinki’s house. But he returned at about 7 p.m. and told him that Pinki had caught fire and was sent to Daboh for treatment. Vadehi Saran further stated that on hearing the news, he along with some co-villagers went to Daboh. However, one Santosh belonging to his village met him near Dugdha Dairy and told him that Pinki had died. Then Vadehi Saran along with others went to village Saujna. But by the time they reached there, Pinki’s cremation was over. It was because of this that they came to the Police Station and further action was requested on the basis of the death report.

4.On this basis, a First Information Report was got registered on 16.8.92 wherein it was recorded that the death intimation was given on 12.8.92 at 23.15 hours orally about the death of Pinki. It was recorded on a preliminary inquiry made by Head Constable Jaswir Singh by visiting village Saujna and the Station House Officer R.S. Purohit had also made inquiries relating to the death. The place of occurrence was examined by SDOP R.K. Hirodia and inquiry was made from the deceased’s father Vadehi Saran, uncle Uttam Singh, brothers Janved Singh and Jitendra Singh, mother Vidya Devi and sister Pratibha. During this inquiry, it was found that the deceased was married 2 years prior to the date of incident and because of the non-payment of dowry, her husband Dasrath, father-in- law Kalyan Singh and Sister-in-law Usha were harassing her. The earlier statement given by Vadehi Saran was repeated. It was then mentioned that on 12.8.1992 the sister-in-law Usha, husband Dasrath caught hold of Pinki and father-in-law Kalyan Singh poured kerosene oil on her and set her on fire because of which she got burnt. The accused thereafter cremated her and cleaned the place where occurrence had taken place.

5.On the basis of this, further investigation ensued and after its completion, a charge-sheet came to be filed in the Court for offences under Sections 302, 304 B and 201 IPC. The accused were charged accordingly. The prosecution, during the trial, examined as many as 11 witnesses. The accu